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2005 Menorah Review (No. 62, Winter/Spring, 2005)

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For the Enrichment of Jewish Thought

ious versions of relativism. Filial piety is a identical. Moreover, the writings of Tales to Engage cardinal virtue in Confucianism as it is in Confucius contain both. Finally, the import rabbinic thought. Confucians point out that of ritual is affirmed in both traditions. Rabbinic Stories, translated no other humans can be more important Confucius greatly respected the treasure of and introduced by Jeffrey L. than one's mother and father, since they are ritual, as when a youth bows before his mas· Rubenstein. Mahwah, NJ: the source of his being. A person may have ter. If the youth fails to bow, he is being dis· Paulist Press five spouses, but she can only have two par· respectful and the relationship between the ents. In Judaism, respect for one's parents two is weakened. Apart from its moral sig­ naturally follows from the commandment to nificance,a ritual is also a work of art, since A Review Essay honor one's father and mother. In one rab· it is a means by which one expresses his By Earle J. Coleman binic story, a man loses a large sum of emotions. Indeed, a ritual is often the vehi­ money, because to gain it he would have to cle by which one conveys her most profound disturb his sleeping father. Rabbinic emotions. Thus the bowing ritual is not a tri­ Jeffrey L. Rubenstein introduces didac­ thought stipulates, however, that honoring fle any more than the rituals of Judaism are tic stories that have the power to enlist the one's master is loftier than honoring one's dispensable. Of course, a ritual may disap­ heart, mind and will, thereby demonstrating father, for one's father brought him into this pear, change or be suspended by another rit· that no learning smpasses that in which all of world, but the master lead him into the ual, but rituals themselves are indispensable these faculties participate. Beginning with world to come (Mishnah Bava Metsia 2.11). because they perfonn the essential task of the miracle story of Hanukah, from the By contrast, Confucians are emphatically allowing humans to commune and to com· Talmud, and concluding with the top of sin this-worldly. When Confucius was asked municate their emotions in an aesthetic way. and repentance in the stories of Elisha ben about the life to come, he told his disciples At weddings, it was customary to present a Abuya, Rubenstein clarifies texts that are not to be concerned about it, adding that if cock and a hen before the bride and groom in possessed of a brevity and subtlety which one leads a good life in the here and now, order to promote reproduction. Once when sometimes render them challenging. He the afterlife will take care of itself. a Roman troop took the birds, the Jews observes that the point of these stories was Rabbis presented the golden rule as fol· attacked the Romans ferociously, demon­ not to convey authentic history; rather, they lows: "That which is hateful to you, do not strating that to violate a ritual is a serious were intended to convey ethical lessons for do to your fellow. That is the entire Torah ." offense against a culture. future generations. In terms of genre, it is Interestingly enough, Confucius also fonnu­ Addressing the problem of evil, preferable to think of rabbinic stories as rev· lated the rule negatively: "Do not do to oth· Rubenstein states a common rabbinic elatory fiction. Aristotle would, however, ers what you would not like yourself." He remind one that poetry is more philosophical response: in this life, good humans suffer was later criticized by Christians who than history, because the latter is limited to because even they have sinned occasionally, regarded his version as inferior; i.e., as less what particular events have happened, but and bad humans flourish because even they direct than "Do unto others what you would poetry is more speculative. considers univer­ have perfonned a few meritorious deeds. have them do unto you." Of course, the neg· sals, and addresses what might occur. As But in the future life, the good receive only ative and positive fonnulations are logically with unsigned paintings, the genesis of rab· rewards and the bad receive only suffering. binic stories is obscure, for they derive from According to Rubenstein, Nahum of Gamzu schools rather than individual authors. There may have regarded suffering as a means by is, however, little ambiguity about the mes­ IN THIS ISSUE which to atone for one's sins. But as popu· sage of a typical anecdote: the thought and lar and recurring as this theodicy has been, • Reflectionsby the Author: actions of the rabbi who animates the story, it can hardly account for the suffering of Rochelle L. Millen illumine how others should live their lives. innocent children. And when Rabbi After all, such rabbis are sages and who • The Studyof The Holocaust And Its Yohanan declares that God delivers suffer· knows better how to live his life than a sage? Discontents ing only to those who can endure it, one As in the Confucian tradition, rabbinic wonders about those who, undergoing great • Jews Courageous morality involved emulation of an ideal fig· anguish, take their own lives. The pain of ure; again, as in Confucianism, the exem­ • Thinking Heart of A Concentration Camp: rabbinic martyrs is sometimes explained plary person presented a capsule "sermon," The Spirffua/Journey of A Young Woman with reference to their rewards in the next rather than a lengthy exposition . world or with the claim that God wanted to in Holland Under Nazi Occupation Regrettably, in recent times, the notion that spare them from some impending and great we should model our actions on ideal moral • Great Russian.Jewish Historians agony in this life. Theologians and philoso­ agents-an idea which was also supported • NoteworthyBooks phers, who find notheodicy to be plausible, by Aristotle-all too often gives way to var- will appreciate the face that, in Talmud 2 Menorah Review, Winter/Spring 2005

Bavli Berachot, three rabbis want nothing to Sometimes a rabbinic narrative is as question. It is certainly fair to say, however, do with suffering, despite the manifold ben­ startling as it is informative. For example, that today, sixty years after the death camps efits that some theologians associate with it. in the oft-quoted story, The Oven of Akhnai, hit their stride, we really do not yet have a The practice of dialectics in the rabbinic one reads that just as the majority is author­ satisfactory answer as to why the Holocaust tradition was of central but not supreme itative over the minority, the sages are occurred. At best we have intriguing and importance. In the academies, the art of dis­ authoritative over God. To justify their insightful studies that illuminate certain putation flourished, but skill in debate was claim they appeal to the Torah that God has aspects of the myriad events that made up invalidated when a sage made the moral entrusted to them. God responds with the Holocaust. But a final understanding mistake of offending or insulting his oppo­ laughter and declares: "My children have still eludes us, and may in fact never be nent. In short, one had to temper the pres­ defeated me." The importance of the practi­ established. Yet as we gain further remove entation of logic with the ethical values of cal is evident in a story about a rabbi who from the Holocaust and as scholarship in the sensitivity and fellow-feeling. Accordingly, values wood over wine and oil, for to bake a area has matured, we do learn more and Rubenstein recognizes Rabban Gamaliel for loaf of bread takes "60 loads of wood." more about the various forces -- political, his habit of humiliating other sages. In Commenting on a lesser-known aspect of economic, psychological and intellectual -­ argumentation, not only does one risk hurt­ the rabbinic tradition, Rubenstein explains that lay behind the Shoah. Holocaust stud­ ing someone's feelings, but one may also that in the intimate atmosphere of the acad­ ies have already taught us a lot, even if one fall into sophistry. The following illustrates emy, separations between colleagues or stu­ of the lessons is that there is still much more such fallacious reasoning: II A lame man and dents and their masters were as upsetting as to be learned. a blind man ate the figs they were supposed failures of marriages or within families. It was with these thoughts in mind that to guard. They defended themselves indi­ Occasionally, he includes material that bears I approached the book at hand. When I fIrst vidually: 'I have no eyes to see,' said the on relations between Judaism and saw the title of John Weiss=s book, The blind man. 'I have no legs to walk,' said the Christianity. For example, one anecdote Politics of Hate: Ant-Semitism, History and lame man. But a sage argued that they relates the extreme view that it was better to the Holocaust in Modem Europe, I assumed could have combined their efforts. The die than tum to a Christian for medical aid. that what was in front of me was a book that moral is that body and soul, as united, will Another story recounts the deed of Rabbi was going to analyze the politics of race and Shimon bar Yohai, who lived in a cave for be judged together." hatred that fueled the formation of the Talmudic storytellers raise a fascinating 13 years, suggesting the optimistic point Holocaust as state policy. I thought I might question when they ask of the merit acquired that light appears even in the darkest places. learn something about how racial, religious by the study of Torah can be nullified by sin. Perhaps the most valuable feature of the sto­ or social hatred was used by twentieth (and In the case of the sinner, Elisha ben Abuya, ries is what, through our own interpretations twenty-first?) century politicians to achieve ultimately his former pupils, to whom he had and evaluations, they may teach us about certain ends. I hoped that insights garnered taught Torah, intervened and supported a our own religious views. by this study might make us more aware of negative answer. And although God rej ected when and where future genocides might be Elisha, his pupil Rabbi Meir convinced God Earle J. Coleman is professor emeritus taking shape. In the end, however, Weiss's to allow Elisha admission to the world to of philosophy and religious studies at book disappoints on all these fronts It offers come. When a rabbi declared that no mercy Virginia Commonwealth University and a no new analysis and affords us no new should be shown toward Elisha, his daugh­ contributing editor. insight. It simply tells us, albeit in a com­ ters told the rabbi not to pay attention to his pact and fluent way, what we already know, deeds but to his Torah. Rabbis wrestle with namely that the Holocaust was the result of another philosophical matter when they centuries of Judeophobia which in the nine­ assert that although everything is foreseen, The Study of The teenth century became the ideology of anti­ humans have free will. Here the point is that Holocaust And its Semitism and that this ideology became part doing good deeds and following the com­ Discontents of the political discourse in most of the mandments (mitzvot) can alter one's fate . Therefore, moral acts benefit the doer as countries of Europe in the decades leading The Politics of Hate: Anti­ well as the receiver. Of course, this response up to World War II. While this is not trivial, Semitism, History the to the problem of free will is based on faith, and it surely is ground that has been already trod since there is no argument but only the asser­ Holocaust in Modem Europe. by many scholars. tion that if one lives righteously, he can By John Weiss. Chicago: The book is broken down into 11 chap­ shape his destiny. As with any philosophical Ivan R. Dee ters. The frrst chapter is a general overview issue, there are different replies to the ques­ of the origins of European anti-Semitism. tion: Can God forgive even the worst sinner? A ReviewEssay While well-written, as I said, the chapter A negative response might suggest that God by Peter J. Haas contains no fresh research or new knowl­ is limited in his mercy. A positive response edge. It simply rehearses the centuries of implies that the vilest sinner who repents in Jew- and Judaism- hatred that were part of the last second of life will earn the same The perennial question of how the classical Western culture. This introducto­ reward as someone who has had a life-long Holocaust could happen in the middle of ry chapter is followed by two chapters on commitment to righteous living. Obviously, twentieth century Europe remains both the politics of anti-Semitism in Germany the latter moral agent needs no consolation if pressing and unanswered. There have (up to 1914 and from 1914 forward); two she believes that virtues is its own reward. been, to be sure, no shortage of attempted chapters on the politics of anti-Semitism in The diversity of topics and tones in answers, focusing on everything from the the Austrian Empire (up to 1918 and from Rubenstein's selections can be demonstrat­ traditional Judeophobia of the Church, to 1918 forward); two chapters on France (to ed through several examples. Rabbinic sto­ the racism of Social Darwinism, to the 1914 and from 1914 forward); two chapters ries sometimes deliver humor, and especial­ emotional traumas of World War I to eco­ on Poland (to 1918 and from 1918 forward) ly wit: UTo escape from an encounter with nomic pressures of the Depression to indi­ and one chapter entitled The Italian the Romans is to be like the Egyptian stork vidual psychoses. AIl of these avenues of Exception. All this is followed by a short that removed a bone from a lion's throat and approach have their utility, and all seem to chapter of Concluding Speculations. This lived to tell about it." answer at least part, but only part, of the organization of matters suggests that the Menorah Review, Winter/Spring 2005 3

author had in mind an analysis of how in the course in the West during the nineteenth cen­ genocides. Again, I have no particular quar­ first four countries mentioned (Germany, tury. The chapters on France, for example, rel with any of these conclusions, but they Austria, France and Poland) anti-Semites allude to other central issues such as the ques­ are neither strikingly new, nor do they real­ were able to deploy their Jew-hatred into tion of the nature of French society, the place ly flow from the preceding chapters. In mass (if not majority) political movements of the monarchy in French identity, the strug­ fact, ironically, the book may function best that in tum made acceptance (or at least tol­ gles with modemity, the place of the Roman if read in reverse B the concluding chapter eration) of the Holocaust possible. The Catholic Church and so on. But these come articulating the basic assumptions while the chapter on Italy was to make, as it were, the across as side issues that are relevant only preceding chapters serve to illustrate those counter-case; that is, to present us with a insofar as they nudge anti-Semitism in one assumptions. country in which anti-S emitism did not direction or the other. It is of course true that I should end by saying that this book is become part of routine political dialogue. there were always anti-Jewish or anti-S emitic useful in its own way. It documents anti­ By contrasting the first four and Italy, the voices in France, and there were times, as in Semitism in Europe in a clear concise and author would then be in a position to tease the Dreyfus Affair, when anti-Semitism accessible way. But for those looking for an out what made the politics of Italy different moved to center stage for a while. But analysis of how the politics of anti­ and so derive lessons for the contemporary France (or Germany or Poland or Austria) Semitism were used to overtake all other world. Unfortunately, this is not what hap­ faced many other political agendas and for considerations to become the guiding ideol­ pened. The recounting of all this history most of the time anti-S emitism was not at the ogy of Europe and so produce the was not mined for nuggets of new insights center but at the fringes of these debates. In Holocaust, then this book will not prove to into the political processes that generated short, the brief overviews given here provide be helpful. The Holocaust remains as inex­ the Holocaust. a rather distorted view of the politics of the plicable, and unexplained, as before. The failure to catry out the apparent plan century and a half leading up to the Shoah. In lies in the fact that in each of the chapters the fact, anti-Semitism in nineteenth century Peter J. Haas holds the Abba Hillel politics of anti-Semitism in the relevant European politics is best understood in its Silver Chair of Jewish Studies at Case country is not so much analyzed as simply larger context, as part of the complicated Western Reserve University, and is a con­ described. This is no small feat in its own weave of political, social and economic tributing editor. right and has its own usefulness. Thus when struggles and activities that made up modem reading chapter six (France Before 1914) the European states' attempts to defme them­ reader comes away with a good overall view selves. It hardly needs to be said that there Jews Courageous of the role anti-Semitism played in France was much in French politics that did not den­ starting with the Revolution and Napoleon, igrate Jews and even supported them. At the The Brigade: An Epic Story of through the political alignments of the First end of the day, then, the question is not Republic, the rule of Charles X, the Second whether or not there were anti-S emites in Vengeance, Salvation, and WW II. Republic, Napoleon III and the Third Europe, we all know that there were. The By Howard Blum. Harper Collins. Republic and so on. Along the way we leam question rather is why and how this one about the role of Alsace-Loraine, how the stream of political rhetoric suddenly rose to Action Fran <;aise came into being, the role become a European-wide policy of genocide A Review Essay played by the Catholic Church, the impact of in the 1940's . This is precisely what is not by Matthew Schwartz. Edouard Drumont's La France Juive, and the addressed in the bock. As I noted above, it is Dreyfus Affair. In short, one gets in a rela­ as if the author assumes that by merely docu­ menting the existence of anti-Semitism he tively brief sweep a good overview of the his­ With all the intensity of a good novel, The has thereby in some way explained the tory of the shaping of French political anti­ Brigade, tells the story of the Jewish Brigade Semitism up to World War l. The problem, Holocaust. -- a unit of 5000 Palestinian Jews who however, is that once again nothing that is In this regard, the chapter on Italy is fought in the British army in Italy during the said in this chapter is new. That is, the author actually somewhat illuminating. Weiss does closing months of World War n. It is well has not gone into archives or done other pri­ show us that anti-Semitism in Italy simply researched, based on many eyewitness mary research that throws fresh light on any did not rise to the pitch, or achieve the reso­ accounts as well as government and military of these developments. Further, there is no nance, that it did in the other four countries. records and published works. This is not a method of analysis that helps us understand Again, I am not sure this is news, but in his systematic comprehensive history of the the established data in a new way. To be sure rehearsal of how anti-Semitism functioned Jewish Brigade. Instead, Blum focuses on the various parts are laid on the table and (or did not function) in Italian political rhet­ the stories of three officers -- Israel Carmi, related to each other, but no new meaning oric, one begins to see a scheme of analysis. Johanan Peltz and Arie Pinchuk. This emerges from this exercise. It is as if the There does seem to be something funda­ proves an effective device for conveying not author expects us to get the point on our own, mentally different about Italy. But what this only facts but events in which emotions were or as if the data self-evidently provides for its is never becomes the subject of sustained very powerful. For there are moments in this own interpretation. reflection or methodologically rigorous story when a reader will feel impelled to The interpretation of the facts leading analysis. The chapter on Italy is another make decisions about great historic dilem­ up to the Holocaust is not, of course, self-evi­ parade of facts. Thus one comes to the last mas, and there are other moments when even dent. In fact the presentation here, by mak­ chapter hoping that this final speculation the most objective of readers can hardly hold ing this assumption, is misleading at a very will finally at least limn out the possibilities back tears. Carmi began life in Danzig, fundamental level. The various chapters for further research and reflection. But here while Peltz and Pinchuk came from small focus almost exclusively on one line of dis­ again this expectation goes unfulfilled. towns in Eastern Europe. All three had fled course, namely anti-Semitism, to the exclu­ Instead, the chapter gives us platitudes Europe to Palestine in the late 1930's. sion of virtually all other trends and forces about how Europe is different nowadays, The British were reluctant to include a except as they impact the development of how ethnic tensions seem to rise in the wake Jewish unit in their army for fear that Jewish anti-Semitic rhetoric. The result is that one of the fall of multi-ethnic empires and how boys trained in the skills of warfare could could easily come away from reading Weiss' the development of modem technology in one day use those skills against the British bock with the conviction that anti-Semitism general and weapons in particular has occupation of Palestine. Indeed this was an was at the very center of all political dis- played a role in modem ethnic and racial important aim of the Jewish leaders, and 4 Menorah Review, Winter/Spring 2005

many of the Brigade's soldiers, in fact, did would execute them "in the name of the gone through so much. Author Blum return to Palestine to fight against the British Jewish people." recounts a discussion between Peltz and and later against the Arab invaders in 1948. Yet, as full of righteous anger as these Pinchuk. Peltz felt that the executions were It was with some reluctance then that the men were, they found their role as avengers a duty to the memory of the slain. "Future Brigadewas finally shippedto Italy and sent troubling. Finally an incident took place generations need to know that Jews avenged to the front lines late in 1944. They fought which set Canniand Peltz on another track. the deaths of their brothers ." Pinchuk agreed well for some months in the area of Bologna, They leamed through American intelligence that it was right too take revenge on people often suffering heavy casualties. There were about an SS officer hiding in a church in a who killed one's own familybut argued that noteworthy moments, such as the rise of a small Polish town. Driving to the town, they wider revenge was too close to murder and Jewish flag in battle, perhaps for the first entered the church fully armed in their was immoral. Canni had been overwhelmed time in centuries, and later the raising of the Brigade uniforms with the Star of David on by his visit to Mauthausen and felt that it was flag over a captured German command post. the shoulder. A group of young girls singing necessary to pay back for centuries of cruel Fourteen German soldiers, caught sleeping there disturbed them. They decided to wait persecution. He became convinced that the in their bunks were awakened by Captain until thegirls left. After a bit, one of the girls passi vity of the ghetto Jews had helped make Joram Lewy shouting, "Heraus, ihr Schwein. ran shyly to Canni and pointed to his Star of the Holocaust possible and that the Jew­ Die luden sind hier." David. "Magen David," she said. "Areyou haters needed to leam that the Jews would These young soldiers were very con­ Jewish," Carmi asked her in Yiddish. Indeed strike back. Blum himself suggests that these scious of their Jewishness and of their place she was. Her family had been murdered, and men achieved a higher sort of vengeance -­ in the process of history. In 1943, when the she wanted to leave the nuns and to be with by building the State of Israel. first soldiers of the Jewish Brigade were other Jews. The two soldiers forgot their training in Benghazi, they refused the order original purpose and took the twel ve year Matthew Schwartz is a professor in the of a British colonel to remove their magen old Eve back to a barracks for Jewish chil­ history department at Wayne State david flag. The incident nearly led to a dren in Italy. University, and is a contributing editor. mutiny which would have seen Jewish and From that point, Canni and Peltz along British soldiers shooting at each other, but with others of the Brigade joined the secret the matter was finally compromised quietly. network helping the bricha -- the clandestine The Passover of 1945 was memorable. transfer of Jewish refugees from Europe to Thinking Heart of A Canni led a seder with his men in a trench. Palestine in the fac e of harsh British opposi­ Concentration Camp: After all the activities of the day, most of the tion. The story continues to read like a mys­ The Spiritual Journey of supplies for the seder never arri ved. The tery thriller with forged documents, brilliant A Young Woman In mules carrying the Passover items had bolt­ ruses, harrowing escapes -- and some tragic ed under a Nazi artillery barrage. It was late failures . Holland Under Nazi into the night before Canni led the kiddush So typical of Jews through history, Canni Occupation over a tin cup which held only a sip of wine. also helped to establish schools for the chil­ The seder was makeshift, and Canni was dren in the detention camps. The Jewish sol­ Etty: TheLetters and Diaries lonesome for his wife and daughter back diers felt the intense human warmth and the of EttyHilles um 1941-1943, home. Yet he felt that this seder was making sense of miracle in bringing new life and edited by Klaas Smelik and all future seders possible. hope to the people who had survived so translated by Arnold Pomerans. William B. These were not ordinary times, and men much. Brigade soldiers stationed in Holland Eerdmans Publishing like Carmi had strong sense of what they and Belgium did important work in secretly were fighting for. With the end of hostilities collecting and shipping anns to Palestine for in May, the Jewish Brigade entered into a the Haganah. Canni was involved in the A Review Essay new phase. They were to be sent into amazing story of 10I 4 refugees crowded on by Cliff Edwards Germany as part of the occupying force. an Italian ship, the Fede, whose name they However, an incident in which some Jewish changed to the Tel Hai. When the British soldiers threatened violence to Nazi prison­ refused to let the ship sail from Italy to Some will know Etty Hillesum, the ers led to a change of plan. They were sta­ Palestine, the people went on a hunger strike young Jewish woman from the tioned instead in Tarvisio, a town in and threatened to commit mass suicide. Netherlands murdered at Auschwitz in Northern Italy near the borders of Austria With international pressure growing, the 1944, through the 1984 work An and Yu goslavia. Tarvisio turned out to be a British finally sent Harold Laski, the Labour Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters passage way for thousands of refugees, and Party leader, who negotiated a settlement, of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943 or th e 1986 it was from these people that the Brigadesol­ and the Tel Hai did sail. Letters from Westerbork. Now this 2002 diers began to comprehend the full measure A moving sub-plot interwoven with the publication of 800 pages brings these of what had been done to the Jews of Brigade's activities is the story of Arie sources and more together in one volume Europe. Peltz and Canni were able to visit Pinchuk. Born and raised in Reflavikin the along with almost 700 carefully prepared Poland, where they saw the camps and visit­ Ukraine, Pinchuk became increasingly wor­ explanatory notes . ed Zabiec, Peltz's hometown, only to leam ried about his family from whom he had had Etty, or Esther, Hillesum was the that his family had been entirely wiped out. no word since early in the war. He spent daughter of a Russian mother and a Dutch The two men returned much affected by many weeks searching DP camps all over for father who taught the classics in a series of their experience. Cannijoined British intel­ his young sister Leah, until finding her in a Dutch schools before his dismissal with ligence, planning to use his position to find camp near Linz. other Jewish teachers during the Nazi and punish Nazi criminals. Execution Some readers might be perplexed by the occupation. Etty, born in 1914, attended squads organized by Brigade officers in fact chapters describing Jewish soldiers hunting grammar school in Deventer, studied law assassinated 200 Gestapo or SS men in the down and executing Gestapo and SS crimi­ months after the end of the war in Europe. nals. Can this be justified? Indeed, Canni in Amsterdam, and took master's exams in Canni and Peltz and another soldier, Oly and the others felt little compelled to obey Dutch Law in 1939. Later she studied Givon, became expert at luring Nazis into the the laws of nations, even Britain, that Slavic languages, gave lessons in Russian the woods alone where Canni and Peltz were unfair and harmful to Jews who had language and literature, and acted as disci- Menorah Review, Winter/Spring 2005 5

pIe and secretary to Julius Spier, a "psy­ God" (494) . On God's relationship to the cho-chirologist" who had undergone plight of the Jews she affirmed: Great Russian-Jewish instructive analysis with CG. Jung in And God is not accountable to us for the Historians Zurich. At Jung's recommendation, Spier senseless harm we cause one another. We had opened a practice in Berlin before are accountable to Him! I have already leaving Nazi Germany for Amsterdam in died a thousand deaths in a thousand con­ Evrei V Rossiliskoi Imperil xviii­ 1939. centration camps . ...And yet I find life xix: Sbornik Trudov Evreiskikh But these few background details do beautiful and meaningful (456). Istorikov (Jews in the Russian not prepare one for the free-spirited young The reader will find in Etty's journal woman who kept a diary from age 27 to rich material on spiritual formation, Empire Xviii-XixCentury:A 29 in an Amsterdam feeling the tightening mystical moments of enlightenment dur­ Volume of Works of Jewish ing which she speaks with the moon, grip of Nazi oppression. Her frank mus­ Historians, edited by A. Lokshin. ings on her sexuality, devotion to he r trees, flowers , friends, and the depths Jungian mentor, longing to become a within. Equally haunting are her descrip­ Moscow-Jerusalem: Jewish great writer, and will to suffer with her tions of her love for Camp Westerbork University in Moscow Press. people, fill hundreds of pages of intro­ and her poetic descriptions of that barren spective self-examination and keen obser­ landscape: vations regarding her times. Scattered At night the barracks sometimes lay in A Review Essay refe rences document the Nazi regulations the moonlight, made out of silver and eter­ by Brian Horowitz requiring the wearing of the yellow star, nity, like a plaything that had slipped from exclusion of Jews from public transporta­ God's preoccupied hand (529). tion, confiscation of bicycles, closing of As Etty struggles to discover her proper The editor, A. Lokshin, opens this edi­ parks and shops to Jews, multiplying sto­ life-work, it may well dawn on the reader tion of essays by the most important ries of arrests and murder. that she was fashioning her only literary Rusian-Jewish historians of the end of the In the midst of the Nazi threat, Etty's masterpiece through her journal entries, nineteenth and early part of the twentieth growing spirituality, meditative reading, and that the "piece of God" deep inside her century this way: "For the Jewish intelli­ and deepening sense of a mission to was creating one of the most poignant gentsia in Russia, the beginning [of work] champion the power of love over hatred, "songs" of the Holocaust. In October of in national history was an important sign­ become increasingly evident in her jour­ 1942 she wrote: post for the development of Jewish self­ nal entries and letters . She read the There is no hidden poet in me, just a consciousness in Russia" (5). The idea that Psalms and the Gospel of Matthew, van piece of God that might grow into poetry. the essential requirement for national iden­ Gogh's letters and SI. Augustine, And a camp needs a poet, one who experi­ tity is the creation of a national past is Dostoevsky and Jung . But above all, she ences life there, even there, as a bard is obvious today. Yet how did the Russian­ constantly read and copied out passages able to sing about it (542). Jewish intelligentsia invent their history? from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a One might well find Etty's descriptions The writers featured in the volume come Young Poet and Book of Hours. She con­ of her transforming self to be among the from the period 1890-1920, during which fessed, "Rilke ... fills my days and is part most revealing of her journal entries. She national consciousness suddenly erupts of my being" (447). names herself "the girl who learned to The reader's knowledge that Etty will and flashes in a marvelous burst, only to be pray" (547), and records the hope that she die at Auschwitz at age 29, in November forcibly extinguished by the late 19205. might become "the thinking heart of a of 1943, makes her struggle to find a life­ Recall the years after the pogroms of 1881- whole concentration camp" (543). work all the more poignant. She felt that 82 and the establishment of the "tempo­ Among the letters preserved in this vol­ she nmust write," become a novelist or rary" May Laws with their suffocating ume are two by witnesses who describe poet, perhaps "j oin a psychological prac­ legal restrictions. But one also found the Etty's sudden departure on a "transport" tice," complete her Russian studies and development of a Jewish workers move­ train from Westerbork to an uncertain fate become a "rnediatorlt between Russia and ment (Bund), an increased interest in the West. But as the journal progresses, in Poland, to what we know turned out to Zionism, and the rise of a broad, accultur­ she sees her mission more and more as be Auschwitz ..One letter notes that she ated intelligentsia, composed of both uni­ being "the chronicler of the things that are "fo r herself asked only for a Bible and a versity graduates and businessmen. The happening" in Nazi occupied Holland. Russian grammar (669). It adds that "on a works here by Semyon Dubnov, Maksim Even that mission gradually transforms postcard picked up on the railway line" Vinaver, Saul Ginzburg, Izrael Tsinberg, into her need to simply be with her people Etty had written, "we left the camp Pesakh Marek, lulii Gessen, and Semyon in their suffering. She therefore refuses the singing." A letter by a second witness Ansky reflect the vitality of Jewish con­ offers of friends who wish to hide her, and describes Etty walking to the train "talk­ sciousness at this time. she returns, even from a sick-bed leave in ing gaily, smiling, a kind word for every­ And they were explosive pyrotechnics! Amsterdam, to work at Camp Westerbork, one she met on the way" (667) . It goes on These were the years when Jewish histori­ a "Police Transit CampI! in the barren to state, "I think she was actually quite ography fully matured, when one after Drenthe region, a camp that gradually looking forward to this experience, to another there appeared brilliant editions of became a pause on the way to Auschwitz sharing anything and everything in store materials, memoirs, letters and volumes of for thousands of Jews. for us all" (668). scholarly research: Registers and Through the Bible, Jung, Rilke, and her Inscriptions (regesty I nadpisi) (2 vols people's suffering, Etty discovers that " ... [1899]), Our Experience (Perezhitoe) (4 there is a really deep well inside me . And Cliff Edwards is professor of religious vols. [1910-1913]), 25 volumes of the jour­ in it dwells God" (91) . Her journal entries studies at Virginia Commonwealth nal, Jewish Past (Evreiskaia starina) (4 often become prayers or inward conversa­ University, contributing editor and editori­ tions, a "silly, naive, or deadly serious dia­ al consultant. His most recent book is The vols. [1910- 1925) and Jewish Encyclopedia logue with what is deepest inside me, Shoes of Van Gogh: A Spiritual and Artistic (16 volumes [1906-1913]). For a short which for the sake of convenience I call Journey to the Ordinary. time, historical endeavors towered over the 6 Menorah Review, Winter/Spring 2005

other arts, over music, literature, poetry ment from Maxim Vinaver's memoirs, emphasis on Jewish history in pre-revolu­ and even, if only momentarily, over paint­ detailing his experiences in the Historical tionary Russia, and its neglect of the ing. Division of the Society for the Promotion Soviet period, appears to be in tune with Rarely are historical articles worthy of of Enlightenment and Semyon's Ansky the resurrection of Jewish culture going on reading 100 years later, factual knowledge famous appeal of 1909 for a Jewish in today's Russia. Instead of looking for and scholarly method are superseded, ide­ ethnography in the introduction to his arti­ predecessors in other countries, or in their ological positions become dated. But the cle, "Jewish Folk Art." In that article, own recent past, today's Jewish intellectu­ works in this volume remain vital today for Ansky calls for the creation of a Jewish als are reaching to the years just before the two reasons. Since the Soviet government ethnography to save the artifacts of "our Bolshevik revolution when Jewish histori­ prohibited independent research on people ." He urges: "Each year, each day, ans were engaged in creating a modem Russian Jewry, non-ideological scholar­ marvelous pearls of folk art die, disappear Russian-Jewish history. ironically, is this ship was blocked during the 70 years of Dying, the old generation, predecessors of multivalent past on which, so it seems, Bolshevik rule. Because of a lack of com­ a cultural break, carry the heritage of a they have placed their unambiguous hopes petition, these essays retain much of their thousand-year-old folk art to the for vigorous future for Jewish life in importance in the Russian language. grave ....At present an urgent task stands Russia. Secondly-and this regards scholars in before us: to organize a systematic and English- the historians articulate a partic­ broad collection of works in all the fields Brian Horowitz is Associate Professor, of folk art monuments of the Jewish past, ular Russian-Jewish consciousness which Director of the Program in Jewish Studies, descriptions of all the aspects of old Jewish itself deserves careful interpretation. Sizeler Family Chairholder in Judaic Although their political views are not life" (p. 643). Studies at Tulane University, and a con­ exposed here, it is not difficult to connect Looking at the choice of essays, one is tributing editor. the historical work with political advocacy. urged to ask: do these essays offer a coher­ In his politics, Semyon Dubnov, a leader of ent and united historiography? 1 do not the Folksparei, articulated the necessity for believe so. Despite the apparent unity of Jewish autonomy and nationhood. His his­ theme, the authors treat very different sub­ torical writings serve as it were to summa­ jects. More importantly, these historians CHILDREN'S MERITS rize the reasons for Jewish political inde­ do not share any methodological or ideo­ pendence. Writing about Jewish economic logical approach. While Dubnov asserts stranded in heaven life under Nicholas I, Dubnov describes the primacy of the unified experience of what occurred when the Jews lacked con­ the Jewish people, Pesakh Marek focuses childless broke and combing the trol of their fate. "The economic life of the on the fissures within Russian Jewry. The beaches for bottles Jews was completely shattered by the sys­ question of the Russian government's atti­ tem of cruel guardianship which lasted a tudes interests lulii Gessen, while the to cash in for coconuts quarter of a century. With this system the fusion of ideas and individuals attracts government wanted to 'transform' their life. no credit left and hungry Israel Tsinberg. All these police activities-the hurling of Nevertheless, the issue of power in the people from country to city, from the border diaspora, which has become so important zone to within the Pale, the repression of for eternity in today's Jewish historiography, is present some professions and the artificial encour­ here. In fact, in these essays one can see and thirsty for good deeds too agement of others-could create no eco­ nomic reform, rather destruction" (p. 381) ." the origins of our contemporary problemat­ late to do and stripped ics. In over half the essays, the authors Or take, for example, the work on the ancestral bank accounts and early Jewish workers' movement by Boris deal with the problem of political power, Frumkin, who was one of the leaders of the taking as their premise the view that the despondent stuck with judgments Bund and an editor of many Bundist publi­ Jews were not entirely powerless and that cations. Despite the inability to organize a the disappearance of overt political inde­ successful Jewish worker's movement in pendence led to the construction of other Not totally lost the 19870s, socialist ideals were already centers of political, economic and religious though second hand discounted receiving form in the realm of the Hebrew control. For example, in his article, "The language. In the monthly journal, Assefat Crisis of Jewish Self-Rule and Chasidism," slowly wireless word Chachamim (Meeting of Wiseman), were Pesakh Marek connects the rise of floats up the shore of those we printed ideas which would inspire later Chasidism to the weakening of the Kehilla. Bundists. For example, in nVisions of a Similarly, in his "Predecessors of the helped to something better and Madman" (1878) , the early socialist Moris Jewish Enlightenment in Russia," Israel Vinchevsky (pseudonym) writes: "Go and Tsinberg shows how the struggle against tell them that all people are brothers, that in Chasidism enlivened traditional rabbinical relieved the futures nature there are not great and no little peo­ power by making it open to Western ple, lords and slaves, rich and poor, that chargeable upon the good knowledge. In this way, rigorous rabbini­ there is not a person in the world who calism was a force of intellectual control, they and those they help could say, 'I have the right to use the fruits particularly in the Northeast, balancing the of your work, the labors of other people's will do and I may yet man Jewish community between the extremes hands" (p. 634) . a check out counter for saints This volume also offers key pieces on of mysticism and secular enlightenment. the history of the Russian-Jewish i8ntelli­ Interestingly, Professor Lokshin features Richard E. Sherwin gentsia, its cultural organizations and those historians who envisioned a vibrant groups. The editor includes Semyon Jewish life in Russia, as opposed to emi­ Herzliya, Israel Dubnov's appeal for the creation of a gration and Zionism. This is clearly a Russian-Jewish historical society, a frag- political decision . This volume with its Menorah Review, Winter/Spring 2005 7 NOTEWORTHY BOOKS

Editor's Note: The fo llowing is a list of books received fr om publishers but, as of this printing, have not been reviewed for Menorah Review.

Plaiforms and Prayer Books: Theolagical and Liturgical Con versos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jewsfrom Spain Perspectives on Reform Judaism by Dana Evan Kaplan. by Nonnan Roth. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. The Jewish Book of Fables: Selected Works by Eliezer Into The Inferno: The Memoir of A Jewish Paratrooper Behind Shtaynbarg. Syracuse University Press. Nazi Lines by Yoel Palgi. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Immigrants in Turmoil: MassImmigration to Israeland its Repercussions in the I950s and After by Dvora Hacohen. The Military and Militarism in Israeli Society, edited by Edna Syracuse University Press. Lomsky-Feder and Eyal Ben-Ari. Albany: State University of New York Press. What A Life! The Autobiography Of Pesach'ke Burstein, Yiddish Matinee Idol. Syracuse University Press. The Wo man Who Laughed at God: The Untold History of the Jewish People by Jonathan Kirsch. New York: Penguin What Jews Know about Salvation by Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel. Putnam Inc. Austin, TX: Eakin Press.

Israel, the Impossible Land by Jean-Christophe Attias and Esther A Lave Made out of Nothing and Zohara's Journey by Barbara Banbassa. Stanford University Press. Honigmann. Boston: David R. Godine Publisher.

The Politics of Canonicity: Lines of Resistance in Modernist The Rabbi and the Hit Man: A True Tale of Murder, Passion, and Hebrew Poetry by Michael Gluzman. Stanford University the Shattered Faith of a Congregation by Arthur J. Magida. Press. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Beyond The Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Looking Backward: True Storiesfr om Chicago's Jewish Past by Russia by Benjamin Nathan. Berkeley: University of Waiter Roth. Academy Chicago Publishers. California Press. EntertainingAmerica: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting by J. The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics: Bundism and Hobennan and Jeffrey Shandler. Princeton University Press. Zionism in Eastern Europe edited by Zvi Gitelman. University of Pittsburgh Press. From Deborah to Esther: Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible by Lillian R. Klein. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. My War: Memoir of a Yo ung Jewish Poet by Edward Stankiewicz. Syracuse University Press. HolacaustHistoriography: A Jewish Perspective by Dan Michman. Portland, OR: VaIlentine Mitchell History and Literature: New Readings of Jewish Texts in Honor of ArnoldJ. Band, edited by William Cutter and David C. Constructing the Holocaust by Dan Stone. Portland, OR: Jacobson. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies. Vallentine Mitchell.

The Image of the Jew in American Literature: From Early Like Leaves in the Wind by Rita Blattberg Blumstein. Portland, Republic to Mass Immigration (2nd edition) by Louis Harap. OR: Vallentine Mitchell Syracuse University Press. Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Birthing the Natian: Strategies of Palestinian Wo men in Israel by Kabbalistic Fellowship by Lawrence Fine. Stanford University Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh. Press.

Translating Israel: Contemporary Hebrew Literature and its The Pluralistic Halakhah: Legal Innovations in the Late Second Reception in America by Alan L. Mintz. Syracuse University Commonwealth and Rabbinic Periods by Paul Heger. New Press. York: Waiter De Gruyter.

American Jewish Wo men's History: A Retukredited by Pamela S. In The Shadow of the Holacaust:Nazi Persecution of Jewish­ Nadell. New York University Press. Chrislian Germans by James F. Trent. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Myths in Israeli Culture: Captives of a Dream by Nurith Gertz. Portland, OR: VaIlentine Mitchell. Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism by Douglas Rushkoff. New Yo rk: Crown Publishers. The Politics of Hate: Anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust in Modern Europe by John Weiss. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, The Stakes: Americaand the Middle East by Shibley Telhami. Publisher. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 8 Menorah Review, Winter/Spring 2005

NOTEWORTHY BOOKS, continued frompage 7

The Origins of Nazi Violence by Enzo Traverso. New York: The New Press. We are gratefu l to the fo llowing members of the Richmond Jewish community The Curtain: Witness and Memory in Wa rtime Holland by Henry G. Schogt. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University for their generous contributions to the Press. Virginia Commonwealth University's Harry Ly ons Distinguished Identity Theft: The Jew in Imperiul Russia and the Case of Avraam Uri Kovner by Harriet Murav. Stanford University Chair of Judaic Culture: Press. Murray and Shelly Janus The Jew, the Arab: A History of the Enemy by Gil Anidjar. Stanford University Press. Alan and Deborah Kirshner Bernard and Ruby Levey Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs, and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement by S. Han Troen. Yale University Press. Steve and Kathy Markel

Jonathan and Anne Marie Perel

Yo u Shall Not Stand Idly By is a new book published Gilbert and Fanny Rosenthal by the American Jewish Committee and written by Jay and Sunny Weinberg Dr. Steven Windmueller, director of the Hebrew Union College's School of Jewish Communal Service Marcus and Carole Weinstein \ in Los Angeles, and one of our contributing editors. It is an essential handbook for Jewish political advo­ cacy and the Jewish community relations field. Dr. Windmueller reviews core principles and techniques of Jewish community relations and offers strategies to meet the ever-changing political landscape.

Nonprofit organization U.s. Postage PAID Richmond, Virginia Permit No. 869

NUMBER 62 ' CENTER FOR JUDAIC STUDIES OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY . WINTER/SPRING 2005

Menorah Review is published by the Center for Judaic Studies of Virginia Commonwealth University and distributed worldwide. Comments and manuscripts are welcome. Address all correspondence to Center for Judaic Studies, P.O. Box 842021, Richmond, VA 23284�202 1, or to [email protected]. Web Site: www.vcu.edu/judaicstudies. The Review is also online.

Editor: Jack D. Spiro Editorial Consultant: Cliff Edwards Production Editor: Neal Hanchey Contributing Editors: Paul R. Bartrop Earle J. Coleman Frank E. Eakin Jr. Cliff Edwards Esther Fuchs Daniel Grossberg Peter J. Haas Herbert Hirsch Brian Horowitz Frederic Krome Rafael Medoff Robert Michael Rochelle L. Millen Matthew B. Schwartz Richard E. Sherwin Jonathan T. Silverman Kristin Swenson�Mendez Melvin I. Urofsky Sarah B. Watstein Leon J. Weinberger Steven F. Windmueller